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Drove by this going to/from Vegas. Finally looked in to it. Pretty interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_FacilityWoah … $2.2B cost.
Ya insane, and it's not even producing close to the output they planned for.
Maybe dust and stuff... Both times we drove past, it seemed like it was very hazy, I'm guessing dust and sand in the air. It was very windy.
I've asked both inside the industry and government for the numbers for the windmill farms that are being put up around the province. No one will come clean about install and maintenance costs. :S
I did a rough calculation based on the Wikipedia article that ~640GW/h per year is $12M and ~336GWh is $6M in annual revenue based on the cited $200/MWh per year number? So, $18M/Year on a $2.2B "investment" am I on or off with the numbers?
Then, there's the stats that blew me away on the volume of natural gas the plant consumes to heat things up prior to producing solar energy.
One has to wonder if there was ever a plan for the plant to be profitable.
If you want to hear some interesting facts about clean energy, really look into nuclear. It is, hands down, the cleanest and most efficient energy we have today. Those images and such you see of clouds of smoke coming out of them? That's steam.
As far as I can tell, there are only two things keeping us from using nuclear more. Waste disposal, and people's fear of it.The costs of nuclear are not as low as people try to paint it.
Waste disposal is a huge cost and when added in properly to the calculations does make it not as affordable.
The other large cost is disaster cleanup. A single plant failure can easily have a cleanup that runs into decades and cost trillions.
Nuclear Fusion will be a big game changer as it is cleaner and safer compared to Fission. But nothing is cost effective with Fusion yet.
Lockhead Martin has been getting closer and even had a public patent submitted back in March.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2018/08/01/will-lockheed-martin-change-the-world-with-its-new-fusion-reactor/#2a434da4c49fObviously, if they are far enough for a patent to get submitted and made public, they are fairly confident in what they are doing.
Just saw this.